Our strange new life post-White River flood

Today, I want to relate some of what we have been going through post-tragedy/mid-recovery. Our lives are very little like what they were before and I suspect they never will be back to the old way again. Although, in the end they may be better. (Note this glimmer of hope.)

First off, although I consider it incredibly lucky that our son Tony made his RV available to us so that we wouldn’t be house guests (or have to rent a furnished apartment for god-knows how long), living in it has definitely taken some getting used to. For example, I had never showered in a phone booth before, so that has been a new experience. Also, our queen-size bed is positioned so that I must either wake Donna (she has convinced me she doesn’t mind a bit – hero!) or climb over her to get to the tiny bathroom in the middle of the night.

That room is about airplane bathroom sized – phone booth shower notwithstanding. We’ve decided to fight the claustrophobia by agreeing we don’t need to close the door during use. (We don’t take visitors very often, so it’s okay.)

A small, but full kitchen is provided and there is room for our two coffee pots on the counter – ONLY our two coffee pots (Donna is decaf, I am caf – thus the twosome).

I don’t want to give an impression that the RV isn’t comfortable. It is very nicely appointed with plenty of plush seating, A/C, Wi-Fi, fans, and lighting everywhere, and plenty of closet space for our very reduced clothing options. I thank Tony every day for the blessing. I just don’t think we’ll ever move into a tiny house, though.

Once we are out of bed and coffeed, there is work to be done. We spent the first few days emptying the house of all of the too much that we have collected over the past 30 years. Many things were ruined, so there was no decision but to discard them to a pile at the curb. Things that mattered less to us post-disaster than before were also thrown out. Cluttersome items – particularly a lot of memorabilia – will never be seen again. Items we saved other than a few pieces of furniture – mostly clothing, electronics, and kitchen stuff – went into bins and bags and were put into the garage.

All this purging and stowing was done haphazardly in a rush. It wound up that if we needed something that had been stored – a warm shirt, a pair of long pants, a sweater – all these had to be located in the jumble sitting in our garage (so lucky to have that building). So our work yesterday was reorganizing that jumble and marking the bins. As a result of the hunt, there is plenty of laundry to tackle today.

Eating is a necessary daily challenge. We mostly have cereal for an easy breakfast and many days we can find a free lunch or dinner or both provided for the flood victims in our local park. Restaurants, church organizations, the Red Cross, and the Salvation Army feed hundreds of us every day. It is an unbelievably generous offering as are the wandering helpers, the medical tents, and endless free supplies at the local church.

As I say – our new life is nothing like our pre-flood, easy, charmed existence. Although we are pretty comfortable, and we look forward to our redesigned home – masterfully led by our son-of-the-year (and it’s only August) Tony – we have literally left our past behind – lost it really.

Our most important constant has been each other. Whatever else has changed, we remain strong, kind, and loving to each other.